


Unexpected

by Wargurl83



Category: Supernatural
Genre: AU-Modern/Sandover, Dom/sub Undertones, Jimmy is a Little Shit, Multi, Platonic Soulmates, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Wait there are two of you?, dcjbb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:40:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24616981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wargurl83/pseuds/Wargurl83
Summary: Everyone has at least one soulmate mark on their body. Most people have two or more. But most people don’t have soulmarks with two other people’s colors on them.Dean’s discovered his soulmates on his first day of work at Sandover, but he has no idea who they are because he met so many people the first day. Add to that the gorgeous Mr. Novak (both of them), he really doesn’t know what to do…
Relationships: Castiel/Jimmy Novak/Dean Winchester
Comments: 14
Kudos: 109
Collections: DCJ Big Bang 2020





	Unexpected

**Author's Note:**

> *vibrates* This is my first ever DCJBB and I just have to say THANK YOU to the creaters of this bang. 
> 
> The lovely art is brought to you by souluscheese, you can find the master post [here](https://soluscheese.tumblr.com/post/621396901410029568/unexpected-by-wargurl83-for-the-dcjbigbang) and their tumblr [here](https://soluscheese.tumblr.com/). 
> 
> Betad by the wonderful captainhaterade. Like srsly, thank you Cap, you did a wonderful job with this and pointing out my mistakes and how to make things better.

Castiel Novak gasps as Jimmy, his twin and soulmate, drills into him from behind. He collapses from his position on all fours, face squishing into the pillow under him as he lands on his elbows. Jimmy's fingers tighten on his hips, thumbs digging into his ass. Castiel smiles at the thought of the bruises he'll have tomorrow.

Jimmy groans at the change of position and stops, buried to the hilt, and lays his cheek on Castiel's shoulder blade. "Cas," he gasps, hands spasming on his hips, "Cas, I'm gonna-"

Castiel turns his head so he can glare at his brother over his shoulder. "No," he growls, "You aren't. I told you, I'm going to come on your cock tonight. Do you need assistance in making that happen?"

Jimmy shivers and squeezes his eyes shut. His hands clench on Castiel's hips again as he considers his options: failure or help. Reluctantly he nods to Castiel.

"I'm proud of you, baby," Castiel rumbles. He feels Jimmy's smile against his skin and smiles in response, even if his twin can't see it. "Alright. Here's what you are going to do." He shifts a little, getting settled again before he continues. "I want you to stop every time you start getting close. And then, you are going to wrap those beautiful fingers of yours around the base of your lovely cock and squeeze until you can continue. OK?"

Jimmy nods against his back again. "Do you-" he swallows, "Do you want me to do anything else?"

Cas smiles again. "No, love. Just keep going whenever you are ready."

Jimmy nods again and, after taking a deep breath, pushes himself back up and flexes his grip on Castiel's hips. Castiel braces himself on his forearms, hands clasped and head bowed, as if in prayer. He grunts when Jimmy draws back and settles in to enjoy the ride, flexing around his twin's cock.

They _both_ end up enjoying the ride. Immensely.

After they clean themselves up, they snuggle up for bed, Jimmy's head lying on Castiel's chest. "Did you hear that Charlie finally hired a new bench manager?"

Castiel squints. "No, I hadn't."

Jimmy hums and plays with the little patch of hair on his brother's chest. "Mhmm. New guy starts tomorrow, apparently. She's super happy."

Castiel runs his hand through Jimmy's hair. It's slightly longer than his own now, and the curls are starting to show. "We'll have to make sure we meet him."

Jimmy snorts. "You know darn well she'll be showing him off as soon as she can get away with it. It won't surprise me if we end up meeting him tomorrow." He sits up, and Castiel can see the glint in his eye, even in the dark of the room. "We should totally see how long it takes for him to realize we are twins."

Castiel rolls his eyes. "We do that with every new employee, Jim. Hasn't it gotten old yet? I'm pretty sure Becky still thinks there is just one of us, even though she's been in the room with both of us at the same time."

Jimmy looks thoughtful for a moment. "Eh. True. Still hasn't gotten old, though." He lays back down and wraps his arm around Castiel's waist and falls asleep.

Sandover Bridge & Iron's main headquarters, based in Chicago, Illinois, is an imposing building and a far cry from Lawrence, Kansas.

Not for the first time, Dean Winchester wonders what the hell he's doing here.

"Come on," his best-friend-slash-little-sister, Charlie Bradbury, says as she links her arm in his and drags him towards the front of the building. "You'll be fine. You belong here; you _earned_ your position. And don't let anyone tell you different."

Dean blows a breath out as they walk into the lobby and past the security guard. Charlie waves at the older man, receiving a grin and a nod in return, and steers them over to the wall of elevators.

"So that's Rufus," she says as she stabs the up button. "He's here most mornings, except for Sundays." The elevator dings and the doors slide open. They step in before Charlie continues. "We've got a couple other guards, but he's my favorite."

Dean chews on the inside of his cheek.

Charlie looks at him out of the corner of her eye. "Alright, this seems like more than first-day jitters. What's up?"

He shrugs. "Not sure, to be honest. Just, well, jittery."

"OK, well, no more coffee for you today," she says as the doors slide open to reveal the HR department.

Dean scowls but figures she's probably right.

She usually is.

The morning flies by while Dean fills out the rest of the paperwork with Charlie, and she gets him set up with his system access. It's lunchtime by the time they get everything done, so Charlie shows him to the cafeteria and introduces him to a few of the people that will be working for him on the bench. Ash is the most interesting of the bunch, and Dean leans over to Charlie after he waves goodbye.

"How in the world did he get hired here with hair like that?"

Charlie snorts. "What, the business in the front and party in the back?"

"Yes, holy shit. I'm actually really impressed that he's managed to stick around as long as he has."

"Well, considering Ash is probably smarter than even me but works here at Sandover instead of for, say, _the US Government_ , people tend to not fuck with him more than once."

Dean looks at her. "I feel like there's a story there."

Charlie grins. "There sure is. Adler, the VP of marketing, tried to get him canned exactly one time."

"Oh, god."

"Yup," Charlie laughs. "Needless to say, after the contents of his browser history got shown to him, Adler backed off really quickly, and nothing was ever said about it again."

Dean stifles a laugh behind his hand.

Charlie slaps a hand to Dean's back. "Don't worry. Everyone else knows better than to mess with the nerds that make their stuff keep working. Honestly, there's a lot of good people that work here. I really do think you'll like it here."

"Yeah?"

"Dean, you graduated with honors from MIT. _After_ having to drop out of High School to take care of your little brother because your father was a useless drunk. And _then_ , you put Sammy through college at the same time that you got your GED and applied to MIT. _Now_ your brother is on his way to being the best damn lawyer there ever was, and _you_ , my lovely handmaiden, graduated early AND get to work with your best friend."

Dean feels his cheeks warm. "Aw, Charles…"

Charlie swats at him and stands up, heading over to the doors to dump their trash. "Don't 'aw Charles' me. You worked hard for this, and you worked hard for Sam. It's time that something _good_ comes from all that hard work." She drops the trash into the appropriate bins and whirls on Dean. "So, are you ready to meet the other managers?"

Dean gulps. "Ready as I'll ever be, I guess."

"That's the spirit!"

"Alright, so," Charlie says as she leads the way over to the elevators. "I'm going to introduce you to some of the managers today. We'll start on the ground floor where the call centers are, and then move our way up."

The elevator dings, and they step in, nodding to the dark-haired man already inside. Charlie lights up.

"Oh, hey, Mr. Novak! Dean, meet Mr. Novak. He's one of our Marketing managers."

Dean holds his hand out to the guy, taking in his dark red tie, slightly curled dark hair, and piercing blue eyes. He swallows when an electric shock zaps between them and jumps back, shaking out his hand.

"Yow! Sorry there, man. Static must have built up or something," Dean says.

Mr. Novak grins a little and waves his hand. "Nah, it's OK. It happens." He looks at Charlie inquisitively.

"Oh! Mr. Novak, this is Dean Winchester. He's the new manager in IT."

A smile lights up his face, and Dean thinks this man is absolutely _beautiful_.

"So _this_ is the famous Mr. Winchester!" He turns to Dean and says, "She's talked about you so much I feel like I already know you! It's so good to put a face to the name, Dean."

Dean cuts a glance over at Charlie, who is grinning sheepishly and gives Mr. Novak his best shit-eating grin. "Charlie is something else, isn't she? It's too bad that she-"

Dean's cut off by the _ding!_ of the elevator stopping, and Charlie grabs his arm. "Well, it was good to see you, Mr. Novak! I need to introduce Dean to the call center managers now, bye!"

Dean stumbles along next to Charlie, leveling a skeptical look at her. "Dude, what the hell?"

"Watch your language on the floor," she hisses. She drags Dean into the break room before releasing his arm.

"OK, _now_ are you going to tell me what that was all about?" he asks as he rubs his arm.

"Sorry," she mutters. "Mr. Novak is actually really private, and that's why I never told you anything about him."

Dean mulls this over for a few seconds before he shrugs his shoulders. "Alright. Well, you've still got other people that you need to show me off to, so why don't we get started?"

Charlie watches him for a few more seconds, then nods her head. "Alright, so you'll meet three down here, one in charge of the IT help desk, who sends us tickets to be worked, and the other two are Sandover call center managers. There are a few others down here that you'll meet later. Come on!"

The afternoon was a blur of people and names, none of which Dean could hope to remember. He met a lot of the managers as groups and was _sure_ at one point he saw Mr. Novak _again_ , static electricity and all, but he brushed it off. There's no reason for Charlie to introduce them twice, after all.

By the time the day was all said and done, Dean was more than happy just to go home, strip off his nice clothing, and fall into bed, letting the darkness overtake him until his alarm the following morning.

"So, did you get to meet Charlie's newest lemming?" Jimmy asks as he shucks off his tie and flings it into the closet, happy to be rid of the torture device. He hung up his jacket and toed off his loafers as Castiel came into the room.

"I did. Dean looked rather confused when he saw me, but it was with a large group, so I'm not surprised," he replied as he leaned over and took off his boots. "Did you?"

"Did I what?" Jimmy asked as he unbuttoned his shirt.

"Meet him."

"Oh! Yeah, I did." He manages to wrestle his way out of his shirt and throws it into the hamper for dry cleaning before he snatches his pocket square, covered in tiny Death Stars, and rotates it to the bottom of his stack.

"…And?"

Jimmy grins to himself at Castiel's impatient tone. "I got to meet him before anyone else did, as a matter of fact." He turns to Castiel and draws him into a kiss, hoping to distract him from the fact that Jimmy got to the new guy 'first'.

It didn't work.

Castiel growled into his mouth. "That would explain the odd look he gave me when I met him with the other Accounting managers. And I suppose neither you nor Charlie thought to tell him there are two of us?"

Jimmy smirked at his twin as Castiel drew back to shed himself of his clothing. "Of course we didn't. Charlie knows our tricks by now, and I told you last night that it still hadn't gotten old. She even did us a favor and introduced me as 'Mr. Novak' instead of my first name."

A button-down shirt smacks him in the face, and Jimmy laughs as Castiel huffs in irritation. "Great," he growls, sending shivers up Jimmy's spine. "Now I have no choice but to go along with this insane plan of yours."

Jimmy whips the shirt off his head, rolling his eyes. "Aw Cassie, you know you-" He cuts himself off as he catches a glimpse of Castiel's soulmark and his jaw sags.

Castiel cocks his head to the side as Jimmy goes silent. "What?"

Jimmy points to his arm and then hurriedly unbuttons the cuff of his shirt. He wrenches the sleeve up and shows Castiel.

Castiel just stares in silence, mouth open.

" _How_?!" Jimmy croaks. " _Who_?!"

"I don't- I don't know!"

Jimmy looks back down at his mark. The base of the mark is a stylized orange feather pattern. Once the twins had gone through puberty, colors had filled in the missing parts; purple on Jimmy's arm and orange on Castiel's. Now, yellow is filling in the rest, flushing out the feather even more. Jimmy stares at the mark, taking in the swirls of color, making his arm look like a watercolor.

Jimmy looks up and snatches at Castiel's arm, seeing the yellow filling in the empty parts of his as well.

"What the hell?" Jimmy splutters at Castiel.

Castiel shakes his head. "I have no idea, Jim. Do you know how many people we meet and shake hands with on a daily basis? Who knows who it could be."

Soulmarks aren't rare, by any stretch of the imagination. Everyone has one. Most people have more than one. Soulmates can be platonic or romantic, and it's up to the matching people to decide how they want to develop the relationship. But no matter what, soulmarks mean that the people that share them will have a bond for the rest of their lives.

Jimmy strokes his fingers down Castiel's soulmark. "Wow," he says, hushed and in awe. "Who would have ever thought we'd get to spend our life with another person?"

"Now we just have to figure out who they are."

_Heat of the Moment_ blares to life, jerking Dean out of a hazy dream featuring Mr. Novak and Dean's lack of clothing. Dean groans and glares down at his dick.

"Traitor," he grumbles at it before he rolls out of bed. He makes his way through his morning ablutions before he stumbles down the stairs to the kitchen to make coffee. He's pulling down his coffee mug when he sees it.

His soulmark has not one, but _two_ colors swirling around it.

Distantly, Dean hears the shatter of the ceramic hitting the floor but pays it no mind in favor of staring at his arm. He stumbles over to the bar, thankfully missing all of the broken crockery on the floor, and collapses on the first barstool he comes across.

He studies the mark on his arm. All his life, it's looked like an impressionist feather. Now, though, it's _beautiful._ Orange and purple swirl around the base of yellow, making the mark on his arm look more like a watercolor than anything else.

He's found his missing pieces.

He has no idea who his missing pieces are.

Dean's shaking as he gets up and stumbles to his room. He swipes his phone off the nightstand and punches through to Charlie's contact.

"'Lo? Wazit?"

"Charlie," he rasps before clearing his throat. "Charlie, wake up."

"Dean?"

"Yeah. Sorry it's so early but, Charlie, I-" he falters.

"Dean, it's early as fuck on a Saturday when we don't have to be awake. _Use your words_ , handmaiden."

Dean sucks in a breath. "I found my soulmates."

Charlie is silent for a few seconds, then, "I'm sorry, did you say soul _mates_?"

"Yep."

Charlie splutters for a few seconds. "Wait, how do you know it's more than one person?"

Dean looks down at his arm again. "Cause I have three colors on my arm instead of just one."

"Wait, three? You have three soulmates?"

Dean rolls his eyes. "No, Charlie," he says patiently. "I have two."

"Oooohhhh," Charlie says. "Huh. OK. So…" She draws out the 'o' as long as she can before letting it drop off.

"I have no idea who they are."

"Wait, really? How? Why not?"

"Dude," Dean huffs, "Do you even remember how many people you introduced me to yesterday? How many hands I shook?"

She's quiet again for a few seconds, and Dean smirks. "OK, fair. So now what?"

Dean shrugs. "Dunno. I guess I'll look up what else goes along with soulmate manifestations and work backward from there."

"That's very practical of you."

"Oh, shut up and get over here and help me."

Charlie's still laughing when he hangs up on her and heads into the kitchen to sweep up the corpse of his second favorite coffee mug.

Jimmy squints into the sunlight streaming into the bedroom and groans. The spot next to him is empty, so he assumes Castiel is out on his morning run and buries his face back into his pillow for a few seconds, letting his brain work through the shock from last night.

A triad.

It's not that Jimmy and Castiel had never considered bringing someone else into the mix. They've had a few lovers here and there that seemed like a good fit for them, but after a while, they'd all fizzled out once the excitement of being with twins wore off. This, though?

This is going to be permanent.

Well, once they figure out who the last piece is, anyway.

Jimmy flops over onto his back and raises his arm so he can trace the new color with the pads of his fingers. He smiles as he follows the swirls of yellow, wondering who it’s owner is.

With a start, he rolls over and grabs his phone off the bedside table, opening it to the text conversation with Charlie.

>>> From Jimmy: _Hey, don't tell Dean about us, OK?_

A few minutes go by, and Jimmy hopes that he hasn't woken her up, but waits for the reply anyway.

<<< From Charlie: _Duh. I knw what ur tricks r._

Jimmy snorts and starts typing again.

>>> From Jimmy: _yeah well, just wanted to make sure._

>>> From Jimmy: _it looked like you were about to break in the elevator._

<<< From Charlie: _(eye roll emoji) was not. told d that yr a privt person and that's y i never talk abut u._

That's… actually kinda genius, Jimmy thinks.

>>> From Jimmy: _Thanks red, owe u 1._

<<< From Charlie: _dam rite u do._

Jimmy tosses the phone to the side and sits up, stretching. He groans when his back pops and winces when his shoulders follow suit. Finally awake, he rolls out of bed and heads to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee and pulling out the stuff to go in Castiel's yogurt bowl. He grabs an apple and slices it up too, half for him and half for Castiel's after-run breakfast. He's sitting at the table, munching on some toast with peanut butter when Castiel finally gets back from his run.

"Well hey there, good lookin'," Jimmy drawls as Castiel rids himself of his running shoes at the door. "Good run?"

Castiel drops a kiss on Jimmy's forehead as he passes him. "It was, thank you. I'm going to shower and I'll be right out."

Jimmy watches as Castiel makes his way through the house to the bathroom, laughing when his soulmate tells him to stop staring at his ass.

The next few days of Dean's life are strange, to say the least.

After freaking out all weekend about who his soulmates could be, Monday starts with Dean and his trusty coffee mug tramping down the stairs to get to the Impala. He sees Mr. Novak as he's parking and gives him a bashful wave.

And then he sees him in the hallway on his way to get more coffee for him and Charlie.

And then he sees him through the window of one of the meeting rooms.

Seriously, can he not get away from this guy?

"Hey, Charlie?" All he gets is a distracted hum from her, so he shrugs and keeps going. "What department did you say Novak works in again?"

She pops her head up so she can see him over her cubicle walls. "Marketing. Why?"

"I thought you said that Adler was the director of accounting?"

Charlie raises an eyebrow at him. "I did…"

Dean chews on his cheek. "OK, just wondering."

Charlie squints at him, looking like a ruffled cat as she peers at him between her Harry Potter bobbleheads. He waves her off. She sinks out of sight, and he huffs a laugh at her.

He's still not sure why Novak, a Marketing manager, was in a meeting with Adler and his cronies.

Weird.

Tuesday morning is a repeat of Monday's, but this time when Dean waves at Novak, all he does is tilt his head in confusion.

OK, then. Not waving anymore.

Dean doesn't see him on the way for the morning coffee top-up, but he _does_ see him in the meeting room again, this time with the leads from Marketing.

Dean's _really_ confused at this point.

Wednesday is again a repeat of Monday, but this time, Novak waves at _him_ as he parks the Impala, with a double thumbs up for the car.

Or, at least, Dean assumes it's for the car.

He doesn't know at this point.

"So," he says to Charlie later that day after a Novak-less morning. "Got anything for me to do today?"

She pops up from her cube. "As a matter of fact, I do. Mr. Novak needs help with his printer not responding. He's trying to print a proof of something or other, I don't know, and I didn't ask. Can you run up to his office and check it out for him?"

"Sure thing, Red. Gimme the work order, and I'll head on up."

Dean grabs the work order and waves at Kevin on his way out the door. He jogs over to the elevators, cause he is not climbing eleven floors in loafers, and waits patiently for the car to get to the basement. With a cheery _ding!_ the elevator opens, and Dean steps in, swiping his badge and punching the button for 11.

Once he gets to the Marketing floor, he asks the receptionist for directions to Mr. Novak's office. He's incredibly helpful and smiles as he waves Dean down the hallway. After verifying the plate on the door does say Novak (and only Novak, which is weird), Dean knocks on the door frame and sticks his head in the open door.

"Mr. Novak? I've got a work order here for your printer?"

The frazzled man whips around from where he had been leaning over the printer in question. "Yes! Thank you, yes. Dean, right?" he asks as he scoots out of the way and over to his computer.

"Yes sir. Charlie said you needed this ASAP, so I wanted to get up here as quickly as I could. Can you tell me what's going on?" Dean gently shoos the man out of the way so he can take a look at the computer, making sure that everything is connected as it should be while Mr. Novak explains what's happened so far.

"Well, it looks like everything is connected, but your computer thinks it's offline. Let me scoot over to it and make sure everything is connected there." Dean checks all the cords on the back of the printer - all good there - and then he sees it.

The plug is laying on the ground.

Dean grins and leans over, grabbing the cord and plugging it back in. The printer gives a happy chirp and whirs, and Dean turns around with a grin on his face.

"Well, that'll probably be the easiest work order I ever get here," he says.

Novak quirks an eyebrow at him in question.

"It was unplugged."

The brown-haired man groans and runs his hands down his face. "Oh my god," he says as he turns and lays his head down on his desk. "I'm such an idiot."

Dean laughs. "Nah, man, it happens to the best of us. I'm just glad it was something super simple, so you weren't having to wait on me to actually fix something."

"Still," Novak says as he picks his head up off the desk. "Thank you for wasting your time and coming up here. I really do appreciate it." He stands up and extends his hand, and Dean takes it.

"Dude, does your tie have tiny R2-D2s on it?"

Novak blushes. "Um, yes?"

"Man, that is so cool! Which one of the movies is your favorite?"

They chat back and forth for a few minutes about the extended universe until Dean belatedly realizes he's still got Novak's hand in his.

"Dude, I am so sorry," he says, releasing the other man from his grip. "I should get back down to the basement; I'm sure Charlie is going to send a search party for me if I don't get back soon."

Novak grimaces. "Can we, uh, keep this between us?"

"What, the printer thing?"

Novak nods. "I've known Charlie for a while, and man, if she finds out I didn't even check to see if it was plugged in, she'll never let me hear the end of it. Ever."

Dean throws his head back and laughs. He can't help it because Novak is right - Charlie _would_ never let him live it down. "I gotcha, man. I'll tell her I had to restart it or something."

"Thanks, Dean."

They say their goodbyes and Dean heads back down to the basement, smile fixed firmly in place.

Thursday starts fuckin' _awful_.

First, Dean forgets his coffee at home. He swings by Starbucks on the way to the office, but the drive-through is wrapped all the way around the building, and the parking lot is full, so he nixes that plan and just continues to Sandover.

Some douche is parked in his spot when he gets there (his name is even on it!), so Dean has to circle the garage multiple times to find a place for Baby that she won't get dinged up.

And then, the crowning glory?

He runs right into Novak when he's heading down the hall to the basement with his cup of coffee.

"Oh, shit! Fuck me, I'm so sorry, man." Dean's covered in coffee, too, but he's more upset over the fact that Novak's vest and deep-red tie are currently a shade or two darker than they’re supposed to be.

Mr. Novak waves him off, irritation scrawled across his face. "It's fine. Neither of us was watching where we were going. If you'll excuse me, I need to go to my office and change." Mr. Novak steps around him, and Dean watches him leave, confused. He trudges back to the break room, gets another cup of coffee, and makes it safely to the basement and his change of clothes.

"Dude, what the frak happened to you?" Charlie asks when he steps off the elevator.

"Ugh," Dean groans. "I, uh, had a run-in with Mr. Novak courtesy of not paying attention to where the hell I was going."

Charlie clicks her tongue at him. "Do you have something you can change into?"

"Yeah," he says as he sets the coffee down on his desk. He leans over and pulls out his gym bag. "I'm gonna go change and get Mr. Novak a coffee in apology. Back in 20."

"Sure thing. When you get back, we've got a ticket for a laptop to be serviced."

"Awesome." Dean ducks into the unisex bathroom, making sure to lock the door, and changes as quickly as possible. He rinses the slacks and shirt off to try to get the majority of the coffee out and then slings them over the top of the stall to let them dry. He stops long enough to let Charlie know his stuff is still in the bathroom and to toss his bag under the desk before he makes his way back to the elevator, makes a beeline to the break room, and secures a coffee and some packets of creamer and sugar. He hustles back to the elevator, bounty safely in hand, and punches the button for 11.

He sticks his head through Mr. Novak's open door. "Hey, man."

Novak jumps and looks up at the sound of Dean's voice. "Oh, hey Dean. What's up?"

"I just- I wanted to say sorry again for spilling coffee all over you this morning, so I brought a cup up."

Mr. Novak blinks a few times, brows furrowed before he breaks out into a grin. "Well, that was very thoughtful of you, thank you, Dean." He stands up and comes around the desk, taking the offered cup and packets before turning and setting them down on his desk. "Just so you know, though, I have my own Keurig."

Dean's heart falls. "Oh. Oh, of course, you do, I'm so stupid. I'm just gonna go." He pulls back from the door and hurries back down the hallway, ignoring the calls of his name as he ducks into the open elevator.

He shrugs off Charlie's questions when he gets back downstairs and ensconces himself in the bench area, taking the laptop apart and cleaning it within an inch of its life. He sticks to himself as much as he can the rest of the morning and hides as long as he can until Charlie drags him out of hiding and up to Accounting.

"Charlie, come on, I've got stuff to do."

"Cake, Dean. They have cake. It's a going-away party for someone or other. Free food."

Dean sighs. "Fine. Fine! We'll go for free food." He drags his feet as he follows her to the elevator. When the door opens on the 10th floor, he stumbles when he sees Mr. Novak standing at the water cooler, filling a mug with water, sans vest and tie.

What the actual fuck? He had on another tie earlier, didn't he?

He can't dwell on it, though, since Charlie grabs him by the arm and practically drags him through the department to the copy room where the food is set up.

Sandover actually can throw a hell of a party. Who knew?

He spends the next twenty minutes chatting with the number crunchers (their words, not his) and is grinning when they finally have to take their leave to go back down to the basement. He waves at Alfie as they leave.

"There," Charlie says, smirk firmly in place as the elevator doors close. "Not so bad, now was it?"

"Yeah, yeah," he grouses, bumping her shoulder. "Thanks, Char."

The rest of Thursday is, thankfully, quiet. They run a few tickets for hardware replacements (just keyboards and mice), and Dean even gets a chance to administer a well-placed kick to “encourage” one of the copy machines for Finance to get it working again (apparently it's a requirement for that particular machine to get the ink toner to settle into the right place so it'll print). By the time he gets home, Dean is ready to just fall into bed and sleep until Monday, but he's still got one more day to go.

 _When I wake up, well I know I'm gonna be_ … Dean cracks one eye open and glares at the nightstand where his phone is. He's deciding on technological murder when the song stops for a few seconds and then starts over. Deciding that it's not worth having to replace his phone, he sits up and turns off the alarm. Throwing the phone to the side, he stretches and scratches the underside of his jaw. Then he perks up.

It's Friday.

Which means he gets to wear jeans and ordinary-people shoes today.

He scrambles out of bed and digs in his closet for his favorite pair of jeans and boots. He grabs a light blue button-down (because they do still have to dress at least a little nice) and his C-3PO tie. His eye catches on his one indulgence over the last few years, and he runs the tips of his fingers down the satin-covered boning.

He shakes his head and gathers up his clothes, showers, makes his coffee, checks himself for everything he needs for the day, and books it out the door. As he guides Baby through the parking garage, he catches sight of Mr. Novak and has to pinch himself to make sure he's not dreaming, because…

Hot _damn,_ that man is hot.

Novak has on a pair of jeans today, but Dean's pretty sure he's never seen a pair of jeans hug an ass like _that_. Add to the ensemble thighs that look like they could crush his head and that oft-present vest, well…

Dean's officially dead.

He's also apparently stopped in the middle of the garage, because a beep behind him makes him jump, snapping his mouth closed. Mr. Novak raises an eyebrow at him in question, and Dean feels his cheeks and ears warm as he snaps his attention forward and continues to his (thankfully unoccupied) parking spot. He sits in his car for a few minutes, trying to regain his equilibrium before he gets out and carries on to work.

The morning passes uneventfully, and Dean's finally over his embarrassment from the garage when Charlie asks him to get some supplies for something or other for the department. He's carrying too much, he knows he is because he can't really see around the boxes, but he hopes that everyone walking his direction will notice and veer around him.

And almost everyone does.

Except one.

"Oof!" He slams into a body and can hear them bouncing off the boxes in his hands and hitting the wall, with a thud following close behind. Dean can't concentrate on the body he just mowed over, though, because he's trying desperately not to drop all of _his_ stuff on top of them. Someone bumps into him from behind, though, and shoots that all to hell.

He manages to toss the majority of the boxes to the side as he falls and then finds himself face-to-face with Mr. Novak.

**  
**

"Oh my god," Dean mutters as he tries to scramble off the Marketing manager. "I am so sorry."

Mr. Novak grunts as Dean's hand slips on a piece of paper. "It's fine. At least this time, I don't have to change my shirt."

"Oh, so _that's_ why Dean brought me coffee yesterday!"

Dean freezes at the second voice. He looks up to see the spitting image of Mr. Novak standing just a few feet away from him and Mr. Novak, laughing at them.

"Yes, this is all very funny, Jimmy. Now, will you please help us up?"

Dean looks down at Mr. Novak. "Um."

Jimmy (apparently) laughs and strides over to them, offering Dean a hand. "Yes, Dean, there really are two of us. No, you are not going crazy."

Dean takes the offered hand. "But…" he trails off as he stands up, and Jimmy leans over to help the other Novak stand up. "But…"

Mr. Novak dusts himself off and then glares at Jimmy. "Dean, it's a pleasure to get to meet you officially. My name is Castiel Novak, and this is Jimmy," he says as he offers his hand for Dean to shake. He does, looking between the two men. Identical faces, identical eyes, dressed to complement each other…

"As I'm sure you can tell," Castiel says dryly, "We are twins. Jimmy has a thing for confusing the newbies to the company."

"Hey!" Jimmy says. "You usually go along with it!"

Castiel rolls his eyes. "Yes, because if I don't, you pout about it for a month."

Jimmy points at him, mouth open, then nods his head. "Yeah, I do." He turns to Dean. "Alright, so now that the cat's out of the bag, it's nice to meet you as well, Dean. I'm Jimmy."

Dean's eyes bounce back and forth between them, and the pieces that have been missing all week finally fall into place. "So," he says slowly, "twins." He points at Castiel. "You're the one that works in accounting because I've already been to Jimmy's office to fix his printer." He points to Jimmy, who grins back at him. "And you are the one who wears funny ties with your suits." He looks back at Castiel. "You wear the same color, just without the funny stuff that Jimmy likes to wear on his."

They are both nodding at him, pleased that Dean's been able to catch on to all of this, even as they were trying to confuse the poor man.

Dean runs a hand through his hair. "Then I own the mother of all apologies to you, Cas. I've run into you, literally, twice this week, and never even got a chance to apologize for the coffee yesterday."

Cas brightens. "Cas?"

"Oh, uh, sorry, I can-"

"No no! It's fine, much better than Cassie, which Jimmy insists on calling me." He shoots a glare at his brother, who's only response is a shit-eating grin.

"Oh, well, that's good," Dean starts before he realizes that he's standing in the middle of the hallway with papers and boxes scattered all around them. "Oh, man, I gotta get this stuff down to Charlie." He drops down to his knees and starts gathering everything up into two piles - the papers that he's guessing Cas was carrying and the supplies. Cas and Jimmy kneel next to him and help, as well.

"Man, no wonder you two collided," Jimmy says when they get the piles in order. "Cas never watches where he's going, and there's no way you could have seen him coming around all these boxes."

Dean feels the tips of his ears heat up. "Yeah, sorry about that," he mutters. "I didn't know there was going to be this much crap, or I would have brought one of the carts we use up with me."

"It's alright, Dean," Cas says softly. "No one was hurt, and it's a good reminder for me to pay attention to something other than myself."

"Here," Jimmy says as he grabs about half of the boxes. "I'll help you get this downstairs so you don't go running anyone else over."

Cas smiles at them before his face drops, and he looks at his watch. "Shit, I'm late for a meeting with Adler." He pushes himself up. "I'm so sorry, I would offer to help-"

Dean waves him off. "Dude, we got this. Go, don't worry about us."

Cas nods then hurries off down the hall. Dean and Jimmy look at each other.

"Well, let's get this stuff downstairs, what do you say?" Jimmy says, a smile playing about his lips.

"Sounds good."

"Oh, thank _god_!" Charlie cries when Jimmy admits that they finally came clean to Dean. "I was about to burst!"

Dean grins at his friend. "I knew there was something odd going on, but I do have to say I'm glad to know I'm not going crazy." At Charlie's look, he sticks his tongue out at her as Jimmy watches on, bemused.

Jimmy sets the supplies down where Charlie directs him and gives her a two-finger salute. "Alrighty, now that the supplies have been safely delivered, I need to get back upstairs and get back to work."

"Thank you, citizen! You are dismissed," Charlie says with a mock salute back.

After Jimmy leaves, Dean whirls on Charlie and quirks a brow. "Very private, huh?"

Charlie winces. "In my defense, they are. But yeah, I already knew that Jimmy was going to want to do this as long as possible. It's kinda his thing."

Dean points at her and waggles his finger. "I'm going to get you back for this, you know."

"Well, yeah. You wouldn't be Dean Winchester if you didn't."

Dean snorts and gets back to work.

Dean's decided that this whole not-knowing-who-his-soulmates-are business is for the birds.

The past few months since he's started working for Sandover have flown by, now that Charlie has gotten her hooks in him. They've been friends forever, having grown up together in Lawrence, but it's been a long time since he's had a circle of friends like this. Charlie had, in no uncertain terms, stated that Dean needed a social life and, as such, he needed to start joining the 'crew'.

The group of people that Charlie hung out with were indeed some… _interesting_ characters. There were Ash and Kevin, of course, and Jo and Ellen from the Roadhouse where they liked to get together Friday nights for an after-work drink (or twelve). The twins were also invited but declined about half the time, as were a host of other people that didn't work at Sandover.

The issue, and back to why Dean thinks the soulmates business is for the birds, is that Dean's fallen ass-over-teakettle for the Novak twins.

"OK? And what's the issue, here?" Charlie asks as she munches on a pile of fries.

Dean rolls his eyes and pulls the plate closer to his side of the table. "Stop stealing my food. Get your own if you’re hungry."

"But they're right there!" She reaches for another fry, and Dean bats her hand away.

"The _issue_ -" Dean says, smacking her fingers and curling his arm around his plate, "is that I have this mark on my arm and have yet to see if either of them have one ‘cause they’ve always got their arms covered up!"

"So?"

Dean rolls his eyes. "Char-." He huffs a sigh and looks down. "Char, I don't want to be that person. Someone who starts a relationship knowing they have a soulmate."

Charlie rolls her eyes and tosses the remainder of a fry at him. He scowls at her, but she cuts him off with a raise of her eyebrow. "Dean, my love. We are soulmates, yes?"

"Yeah."

"Does that impact our friendship in any way?"

"Well, no, but-"

"No butts." She snorts a laugh at her own joke.

"Char," he says, exasperated. "I don't want to bone you."

Charlie opens her mouth to argue, finger pointed at him before she thinks about what he just said, and shock passes over her face. "Oh," she says, index finger curling down and shoulders slumping. "Oh, _that_ kind of relationship."

Dean blinks at her a few times before asking, "What kind of relationship did you think I was talking about?"

"I uh. I dunno." Charlie looks away.

Dean squints at Charlie in suspicion. "Char, what's wrong?"

"I just… this soulmark is your 'real' soulmates, isn't it?"

"Char," he reaches over and takes one of her hands between his, "you _are_ one of my real soulmates. Nothing is going to change that."

"Yeah, but-"

Dean shakes his head, cutting her off. "Nope. Charlie, you are my oldest and best friend. _Nothing_ will change that. _Ever_."

Tears well up in Charlie's eyes, and she flings herself out of the booth and around the table so she can squish herself into Dean's lap. Dean wraps his arms around her and squeezes her tightly.

"Sorry," she mumbles into his shirt.

Dean buries his nose in her hair and shakes his head. "Nothin' to be sorry for, kiddo."

"I do see your reasons for not wanting to ask one of them out, though." She peeks up at him. "So, what's it going to take to find out what their soulmarks look like?"

Dean shrugs. "No idea. They've always worn long sleeves when they are at the office or when we hang out as a group."

Charlie's quite for a few minutes. "You know," she says slowly, "Now that I think about it, they always wear long sleeves. Even in the summer."

"Well, guess my little crush will just go on unrequited," Dean says, sadly.

They both sigh at the plate of fries.

Jimmy's toweling off his hair as he walks into the bedroom to see Castiel running his fingertips over the soulmark on his arm. "Hey, sweetheart," he says as he sits down on the bed next to his twin. "You OK?"

Castiel hums in response. "It's been months since the color appeared, and we still have no idea who they are."

Jimmy finishes drying off his hair and tosses the towel in the direction of the hamper. He bumps Castiel's shoulder. "Lookin' to get rid of me already?" he teases, leaning over and making kissing noises.

Castiel rolls his eyes and shoves Jimmy's face away. "No, you insufferable brat. Just… curious." He strokes his fingers down the mark again, and Jimmy feels his chest tighten.

"Hey," he says, drawing his brother's attention to him once more. "Are we OK?"

Castiel's eyebrows draw together in confusion for a moment, before surprise crosses his face and he pulls Jimmy to him, so their foreheads touch.

"Oh, Jimmy, I'm sorry. _Of course,_ we are OK. I'm so sorry for making you feel otherwise."

Jimmy sniffles, tears springing to his eyes. He hastily wipes them away. "I don't even understand why I feel like this. We're soulmates."

Cas thumbed across his cheekbone. "Jim, just because we are soulmates doesn't mean we don't need to communicate. Can you tell me what's going through your head?"

Jimmy chews on his cheek, then sighs and starts to explain. He pours his heart out.

"Alright," Cas says after Jimmy's words dry up. "I can fix at least some of this. Jimmy, you mean the world to me. I'm excited to meet the person who is going to be a part of our lives, but you are, first and foremost, my twin and my first love. _Nothing_ will ever change that."

Jimmy laughs because Cas is right. "Alright, enough of the feelings talk," he says with a quick kiss to Castiel's cheek. He pokes at Cas' arm. "Who do you think it is, anyway?"

Castiel draws back and thumbs over his mark again. "Well, I'm guessing it's someone from work. But we meet so many people every day; we don't even know if they work with us or not."

A grin spreads across Jimmy's face. "What if it's Dean?"

A blush creeps up Castiel's neck and cheeks, and Jimmy is instantly intrigued.

"Little brother, do you have something to tell me?" he teases.

"Seven minutes, James. Seven." Cas sighs. "I like Dean."

"Well, yeah, I do, too."

The flush rose to Cas' ears. "I like him like I like you."

Jimmy squints, parsing out the _like_ s in that sentence. His eyes widen when he gets it.

And he grins.

Dean looks around the park, grinning at the families that have gathered for Sandover's family picnic. He waves at a few little girls who are giggling as they run past him and flips another round of burgers on the tiny-ass grill the park has.

He has no idea whose brain-child the picnic was, but they deserved a medal, in Dean's opinion. Sandover is doing just fine (according to the directors he knows, anyway), so giving everyone a break _and_ letting them all let loose with their families?

Win-win, right there.

"Hey there, Dean-o!" Jimmy calls out, drawing Dean's attention over his shoulder. The twins are making their way over to the pavilion, burger buns and other burger-related items in hand. "Where do you want us to put these?"

"Dude, I have no idea why everyone thinks I'm in charge, but uh, over there, I guess?" He points over to the table where the side dishes are set up.

"It's ‘cause you look so good in front of that grill, handling all that meat," Jimmy says as he deposits the buns next to the plates. Cas rolls his eyes.

Dean laughs. "Well, someone who knew what they were doing had to take over. Zachariah burned the first batch so badly, they looked more like hockey pucks than food."

Cas chuckles as he arranges the ketchup and mustard. "That sounds about right."

Jimmy bounds over to Dean and looks over his shoulder. "Anything we can help with?" he asks.

Dean hums at the warmth of Jimmy's body. "Nah. This batch is just about done, and I'm going to take a break for a bit. Not many people are ready to eat yet."

Jimmy nods, digging his chin into Dean's shoulder. "Sounds good." He draws away, and Dean misses the wall of heat immediately. "Well, Cassie, let's go see what kind of trouble we can get into. What do you say?"

"Charlie's over near the pond, if you want to meet up with her," Dean says, and waves his hand in the general direction of where he saw the gang wander off.

"Thank you, Dean," Cas says as they make their way towards the pond.

Dean waves them off and helps a little boy get his hamburger set up. A few others come by, running him out of cooked meat, so he's still in front of the grill a little while later when he sees Castiel tromping towards him.

Soaking wet.

Dean's mouth goes dry as he watches his muscles play under the material sticking to him.

"What the hell happened to you, man?" Dean asks when Cas gets close enough.

"Charlie happened to me," he growls, shaking water from his hands.

Dean stifles a snicker when Cas glares at him. "Let me get this transferred to a pan, and I can help you out. I've got some towels and a change of clothes in Baby’s trunk."

Cas sighs. "Thank you, Dean."

"Eh, no problem." He impatiently waits for the last of the patties to get done cooking before he transfers them over to the waiting pan. "OK, there we go. No hockey-puck burgers here. Alright, Cas, let's get you dried off and changed." He leads the way to his car and pops the trunk. He digs around and pulls the towels out and tosses one to Cas.

"Thank you," he says and starts toweling off his hair. Dean digs around for a plastic bag and holds it open for Cas to drop his stuff in.

"Did you at least get to empty your pockets first?"

"No," Cas sighs as he digs his wallet, keys, and phone out of the various pockets and sets them down on Baby's bumper. He then strips off his shirt and drops it in the waiting bag.

A strangled noise escapes Dean when he catches sight of the watercolor on Cas' arm. He drops the bag and reaches out, taking Cas' arm and twisting it so he can see the mark in its full glory.

Cas tries to pull his arm out of Dean's grasp, but he tightens his hand around Cas' wrist. He looks up to Cas and swallows hard.

"Cas-" he croaks. There seems to be a lump crowding his throat, keeping him from speaking further, so he twists his arm around so Castiel can see the mark on Dean's arm.

The match to Cas'.

Castiel sucks in a breath, wet clothes forgotten for the moment, and reaches out to Dean, snatching his wrist and pulling him closer so he can look at the mark. "Dean, when-?"

"Uh, right after I started at Sandover." He clears his throat. "The day I started, actually."

Cas looks up, eyes wide. "Oh. Oh, it wasn't-"

"Cassie!" The two men startle and step away like they've been burned. Jimmy comes running up to them and raises an eyebrow when he sees Castiel's partial state of undress. "Well, I guess that answers that question."

"N-no-" Castiel starts.

"No, man, nothing hinky going on here," Dean says in a rush.

Jimmy's other eyebrow raises. "You do realize that makes it sound like something is, in fact, hinky, right?"

Castiel huffs at his brother and reaches over to Dean, grasps his wrist, and twists his arm around so Jimmy can see his mark. Jimmy's eyes widen, and he looks at them.

"I think we need to go home."

A whine comes out of Dean's throat. "We can't. Not right now. We are expected to stay at this thing for at least," he checks his watch, "five more hours according to the powers that be."

"But-"

"James." Jimmy snaps to attention at the tone of Cas' voice, and Dean feels shivers run down his spine in response. "We are required to stay." In a softer tone, he asks Dean, "Can you please hand me the dry clothing you mentioned so I can change out of these wet ones?"

Dean snaps out of his stupor. "Oh! Yeah!" He whirls around to the trunk and pulls out a pair of jeans and a shirt, handing them over with another towel.

"Do I even want to know why you have all this stuff in the trunk of your car?" Jimmy wonders as Cas walks away towards the bathrooms.

Dean shrugs. "Dad was a Marine. Kinda got 'be prepared for anything' drilled into my head, ya know?"

"Oh. Yeah, I guess that makes sense." Jimmy shuffles side-to-side. "So, I'm uh-" He tosses his thumb over his shoulder. "I'm going to get back to the gang before they decide that I've gotten lost and come looking for me, and I decide to say 'fuck it' to Cas' 'I mean business' voice. See you later?"

Dean waves him off, shaking his head as Jimmy turns and scampers away. He turns and folds up the towel before he does his best to wring the water from Cas' shirt. He's folding that, too, when Cas rejoins him, handing Dean the towel and tucking the slacks into the plastic bag.

"Thank you, Dean," he says as he takes the shirt from him and puts it in the bag on top of the slacks. "Where did Jimmy go?"

Dean tosses the two towels into the trunk and slams it shut. "He went back to the rest of the group."

"Mm." Cas slings the bag over his shoulder as they walk back toward the pavilion.

Once they reach the shelter, Dean takes himself back to the grill, and Cas sits down at the table nearest to him. They fall into easy chatter, and Dean feels his stomach settle from the nerves that had tried to take over when he first saw Cas' mark.

An hour after Cas' dunking, the gang emerges from the trees. Charlie smirks at Dean, shooting him finger guns before she slides up to him.

"Well?"

Dean raises an eyebrow and flips a burger. "Well, what?"

He can feel her full-body eye-roll. "Did it work? Did you get to see his mark?"

"I did."

She vibrates against him for a few seconds, and he bites his cheek to keep a grin off his face.

" _Oh my god, will you just tell me already?!_ " she hisses at him.

Dean laughs and hears an answering chuckle from Castiel. Charlie whips her head around and glares at him, to which he waves at her.

Showing off his mark.

Charlie squeals and bounds over to Cas and wraps her arms around his neck.

"Hey!" Jimmy complains, "Why's he get a hug and not me?" He rolls his sleeve up and waves his arm in front of her face, showing the matching mark to Cas and Dean's.

Charlie gives Cas a final squeeze and launches herself at Jimmy and does her best to squeeze the breath out of him too. "I'm so happy for you guys!" She plops herself down between the twins. "So wait, why did you guys hide them?"

Jimmy looks away, and Cas clears his throat. "Even though soulmarks trump all, not everyone views us in the best light. We thought it best to circumvent any issues by not showing them off."

A flash of pain crosses Charlie's face. "Family?"

"Mm," Cas replies, inclining his head in her direction.

"Gotcha. Well, none of that shit will fly around here. You let me know if anyone gives you shit, you hear me?" She pokes Jimmy in the shoulder, drawing his gaze back to her. "Love is love, and soulmate marks transcend all family ties."

"Or makes their own," Dean chimes in as he sits down next to Jimmy. Jimmy takes the opportunity to take advantage and show Dean how he feels about him and burrows into his side.

**Author's Note:**

> You can come find me on [Tumblr](https://wargurl83.tumblr.com/).  
> Check out my other stories [here](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wargurl83/works).


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